July 14, France's National Holiday, was overshadowed by a bloody truck attack in Nice ...

Nice: July 14, 2016

... a tactic that was cruelly repeated in Berlin on December 19. You may read in the November issue of the Internet journal Rumiyah: Trucks are like knives; they are easy to get and are not suspect. This is cynical with respect to the Polish driver murdered by terrorist Anis Amri in his cockpit. Łukasz Urban leaves a wife and a son behind.

Berlin: December 19, 2016

More and more right wing people in my country amalgamate the massive influx of Muslim refugees in 2015 with Islamic state terrorists trying to capitalize politically on these jihadist attacks aimed against our western society and our way of life.

Religious fanaticism is a root of evil and misguided fanaticism is worse. In our enlightened "Christian" world we should not forget that in the past "Christian fundamentalists" practiced crusades against Muslims and pogroms against Jews.

And if religion is not the root it is easily used as a pretext. The German historian Golo Mann rightly wrote: With the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War the Bohemian Protestants always claimed that the war was about religion while the Habsburgs continued stating that the war was nothing else than a secular rebellion, with other words a fight for power.

Frequently "leaders" cynically argue with religious ideology to keep the gemeiner Mann (common man) in line and then will send him to fight and die for the leaders' glory. Over the centuries nothing has changed except that nowadays the jihad sends suicide attackers killing "infidels".

On Tuesday, December 20, one day after the Berlin attack we had a precious guest at Freiburg. Red Baron visited the local Weihnachtsmarkt in good company.